About Us
Sieve is a multimodal lab curating the world's highest-quality training datasets, spanning video, audio, images, text, and 3D. We combine exabyte-scale data infrastructure with novel multimodal understanding techniques to push the frontier of foundation models. We exist to solve one of the biggest bottlenecks in AI: high-quality training data.
We partner with top AI labs and did $XXM last quarter alone, with a team of roughly 40 people. We raised our Series A from firms including Matrix Partners, Swift Ventures, Y Combinator, and AI Grant.
Why Now
Physical AI and world models need data captured in the real world, and Shenzhen is where the world's hardware gets built. We're standing up Sieve's first presence in China to run on-the-ground data capture, tap the Shenzhen hardware supply chain, and build local capacity close to the source. That work won't happen from SF. We need someone who can take a market from zero to a fully functional operating unit without waiting for a perfect playbook.
About the Role
We're hiring a Shenzhen Operations Lead as our first hire in China. You'll own Sieve's Shenzhen launch end-to-end: structured market and regulatory assessment, navigating data privacy and consent requirements with local and outside counsel, setting up the entity, banking, and physical infrastructure, and deploying the field teams that capture data for frontier labs.
This is a builder role, not a handoff. You'll be the single point of accountability across legal, operational, financial, and commercial workstreams. Once Shenzhen is live, you'll stay on as the local lead, running and scaling the operation and codifying what you learn into the playbook for future markets.
What You'll Do
Lead the Shenzhen launch: Own the legal, operational, financial, and commercial workstreams from day zero; set launch milestones and hit them.
Assess the market: Run pre-launch feasibility and regulatory evaluations with counsel, covering China data privacy (PIPL), cross-border data transfer, consent frameworks, import/export, and local employment law.
Stand up local infrastructure: Drive entity setup (WFOE or EOR), bank accounts, local payment rails, office/warehouse space, and compliance workflows; procure capture hardware by leveraging Shenzhen's supply chain.
Build the local team: Recruit, onboard, train, and manage Sieve's founding Shenzhen team, field supervisors, and contributor network for data capture; manage vendors and partners.
Run the operation: Set operating cadences, SOPs, and KPI scorecards from day one so collection stays on track on quality, throughput, and compliance.
Partner with SF and build the playbook: Translate project requirements into field plans with SF product and ops; turn the Shenzhen launch into modular playbooks covering budget models, timelines, regulatory checklists, and vendor toolkits.
Requirements
5–8+ years in operational leadership, expansion ops, strategy, or GM roles, including at least one international market launched end-to-end at a high-growth, ops-intensive company
Hands-on experience building local ops from concept to stabilization: legal setup, financial rails, commercial partners, vendor contracts, and early local hiring
Working knowledge of doing business in mainland China, including entity setup, local hiring, and regulatory processes
Fluent in Mandarin and English; clear communicator across time zones and cultures
Strong problem-solving, autonomy, and resilience in ambiguous environments; comfortable building systems where none exist yet
Based in Shenzhen or willing to relocate; able to travel, including to SF, as needed
Nice to Have
Experience working with external law firms and government authorities on regulatory hurdles, cross-border data transfer, or local labor law
Experience in data collection, media production, field research, marketplace ops, or hardware sourcing in Shenzhen
Familiarity with physical AI, robotics, world modeling, or AI training data workflows
Prior work standing up ops in multiple countries
Skills Required
- 5-8+ years of experience in operational leadership, expansion operations, strategy, or general management roles
- Experience launching at least one international market end-to-end at a high-growth, operations-intensive company
- Hands-on experience building local operations from concept to stabilization, including legal setup, financial rails, commercial partners, vendor contracts, and local hiring
- Working knowledge of doing business in mainland China, including entity setup, local hiring, and regulatory processes
- Fluency in Mandarin and English
- Strong problem-solving, autonomy, resilience, and ability to operate in ambiguous environments
- Based in Shenzhen or willing to relocate
- Ability to travel, including to San Francisco, as needed
- Experience working with external law firms and government authorities on regulatory hurdles, cross-border data transfer, or local labor law
- Experience in data collection, media production, field research, marketplace operations, or hardware sourcing in Shenzhen
- Familiarity with physical AI, robotics, world modeling, or AI training data workflows
- Prior experience standing up operations in multiple countries
What We Do
Sieve is the only AI research lab exclusively focused on video data. Video already makes up 80% of internet traffic and has become the dominant medium driving creativity, communication, gaming, AR/VR, and robotics. Unlocking the ability to truly model video is the key to breakthroughs across all of these domains but progress has been bottlenecked by one thing: high-quality training data. That’s where Sieve comes in. We bring together exabyte-scale video infrastructure, novel video understanding techniques, and dozens of diverse data sources to create datasets that push the frontier of video modeling. This unique combination allows us to deliver data with unmatched precision, quality, and speed which has earned the trust of frontier AI labs, Fortune 100 companies, and fast-growing generative AI startups.
